JPH03208001A - Production of image display device and optical fiber group - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decrease the quantity of the fibers to be used and to decrease the weight of the above device by forming the magnifying optical system of images from the ratio between the area of the end part where optical fiber bundles are concentrically arranged and the area of the end part where the optical fiber bundles are linearly arranged. CONSTITUTION:The light generated by bar-shaped light sources 5, such as fluorescent lamp, is made into the light of a uniform distribution by a diffusing plate 4 and a reflecting plate 6. This light illuminates a liquid crystal display 3 and the light past the display 3 is magnified to the area larger than the surface area of the display 3 by the optical fiber bundles 2. The light is emitted from the end faces thereof, by which a screen is formed. Since the fiber bundles 2 are expanded wider than the areas of the peripheral circuit 8 of the display 3 and a display surface 7 added together, the continuous connection of the respective fiber bundles 2 to each other is possible. The one end of the fiber bundles 2 in contact with the display surface of the display 3 is closely packed or bundled in a square. The light past the panel 9 of the display 3 is thus most efficiently converged.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an image display device that combines a large number of liquid crystal displays to form a large screen, and a method of manufacturing an optical fiber group used therein.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, as a method for forming a large screen by combining a large number of displays, there has been a device that displays a single screen by combining cathode ray tubes and liquid crystal panels.

However, these devices have seams between their respective cathode ray tubes and liquid crystal panels. For this reason, several efforts have been made to eliminate this seam, including four units with optical fiber bundles in which one end of the optical fiber bundle is tightly attached to the LCD color TV and the other end is expanded approximately six times. These are arranged in a field shape and can be used to connect four 5-inch LCD color TVs to 60
A prototype device has been developed to form a seamless screen of 2.5 inches.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention 1] However, since this device has a large magnification ratio, the screen becomes dark, and the length of each optical fiber used for magnification must be increased, which increases the depth of the device. The disadvantage is that it is not possible to construct a device with a smaller size.

The present invention provides an image display device that connects a large number of screens with a seamless screen, and that allows a bright screen to be obtained by approximately doubling the magnification ratio and has a small depth.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple method for manufacturing optical fiber groups used therein.

[Means for Solving the Problems] An image display device according to the present invention includes an optical fiber group having optical fiber sections stacked concentrically and optical fiber sections stacked linearly, the end surfaces of which are arranged in the concentric circle. In the case where the optical fibers are stacked in a straight line, this is the normal direction, and in the case where the optical fibers are stacked in a straight line, this is the direction that crosses the running direction of the optical fibers at a necessary angle. By using an optical fiber bundle in which optical fiber groups are stacked as an optical system for enlarging a displayed image, a large number of screens can be connected seamlessly.

Further, a line is formed on a jig having a curved part having at least two cylinders having different centers or parts thereof, and a straight line part that can arrange the optical fibers in a straight line between the two curved parts. An optical fiber group for an optical fiber bundle applicable to the above-mentioned image display device can be manufactured by a simple manufacturing method by stacking optical fibers in the form of sheets.

[Operation] In the image display device of the present invention, the magnification ratio of the image is determined from the ratio of the area of the end of the concentrically arranged portion of the optical fiber bundle to the area of the linearly arranged portion.

Furthermore, in the method for manufacturing an optical fiber group of the present invention,
By stacking linear optical fibers between at least two curved parts, the optical fibers are arranged in a straight line between the two curved parts and concentrically in the curved part, and these optical fibers are formed into continuous sheet-like optical fibers. A group is formed.

[Example] Fig. 1 is an elevational perspective view of an image display device 1 of the present invention, in which 2 is an optical fiber bundle, 3 is a liquid crystal display, 4 is a diffuser plate, 5 is a light source, 6 is a reflector plate, and 7 is a The display surface 8 is a peripheral circuit located outside the display surface 7.

Note that the method for manufacturing an optical fiber group of the present invention, which will be described later, is as follows:
The following is a method for manufacturing the optical fiber bundle 2.

Next, the operation will be explained.

The light generated by a bar-shaped light source 5 such as a fluorescent lamp becomes light with a uniform light distribution by the diffuser plate 4 and the reflector plate 6, and illuminates the liquid crystal display 3, and the light that passes through it is transmitted to the liquid crystal display by the optical fiber bundle 2. The display area is larger than that of No. 3, and light is emitted from the end face to form a screen. At this time,
The optical fiber bundle 2 is wider than the combined area of the peripheral circuit 8 of the liquid crystal display 3 (see FIG. 2) and the display surface 7, and in order to expand to display a display, each optical fiber east 2 is continuous with each other. connection is possible.

FIG. 2 is an elevation view and a partial sectional view of the optical fiber bundle 2 and liquid crystal display 3 of FIG. 1.

Optical fiber bundle 2 in contact with the display surface of liquid crystal display 3
One end has a structure in which they are bundled in a close-packed or square arrangement, and can most efficiently collect the light that has passed through the panel 9 of the liquid crystal display 3. This optical fiber bundle 2 is
This is a structure that can be expanded while maintaining its positional relationship. In addition, 17 is a subesa. In this case, as the magnification increases, the density of optical fibers per area decreases, and the screen becomes darker when viewed on average. This relationship is almost inversely proportional to the magnification area, so in the case of 2x magnification and 3x magnification, the brightness is 1/4 and 1/9 respectively compared to 1x magnification.
It gets darker in proportion to the square of the value.

Therefore, in order to obtain a bright screen, there are two methods: not increasing the magnification ratio, and increasing the brightness of the light source 5. Therefore, in the present invention, a method is adopted in which the magnification ratio is reduced, and is preferably expanded to an area equal to the sum of the areas required by the panel 9 of the liquid crystal display 3 and its peripheral circuit 8, or approximately twice the area of the panel 9. The feature is that the brightness of the displayed image is increased by this. Furthermore, by limiting the magnification in this way, the optical path length required for expansion becomes shorter, making it possible to shorten the length of the optical fiber. The use of this short optical fiber makes it possible to reduce the thickness of the image display device of the present invention, and also reduces the loss of light within the optical fiber because the distance that light passes through the optical fiber is shortened. There are advantages. Furthermore, since the influence of optical loss is small, the requirements for optical fiber loss are lowered, and inexpensive optical fibers can be used. As described above, new features arise by limiting the magnification.

In the optical fiber bundle 2 used in this image display device 1, the density of the optical fibers differs between the panel 9 side and the display surface 7 side, and must change accurately. For this reason, manufacturing is extremely difficult. One of the objects of the present invention is to solve this problem, and next, this manufacturing method will be explained.

FIG. 3 is a top view showing the state of the jig and the optical fibers showing the method for manufacturing an optical fiber group according to the present invention. 10 has semi-cylindrical curve forming parts 11 on the left and right, and a straight line forming part 1 between them.
This is a jig for winding optical fibers connected by 2.

The figure shows a state in which one optical fiber 13 is wound around this jig 10 in one row (one layer) in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the paper, and in a width D in the direction horizontal to the plane of the paper. . This optical fiber 13 is temporarily fixed with an adhesive, and then the optical fiber 13 is cut along the cutting lines 14 and 14' of the optical fiber 13 shown in FIG.

At this time, the curved portion of the optical fiber 13 is located at the center 1 of the cylinder.
It is a normal line from 5. Since the cutting section along this line cuts all the optical fibers 13 in the perpendicular direction, its length is equal to the diameter of the optical fibers 13 multiplied by the number thereof.

On the other hand, the cutting line 14 of the straight part is parallel to the cutting line 14' of the curved part, and the arrows in the figure correspond to the cutting line 14' in the same direction.
14' are paired. The cutting line 14 of this straight part is
It has a constant angle θ with all the optical fibers 13. Therefore, the length of the concentrically arranged ends ℃, is the angle θ
Although it is constant regardless of the angle θ, the length β2 of the linearly arranged end portion changes in proportion to the reciprocal of the sine of the angle θ, and the magnification ratio in one direction is determined by this length I23. The optical fiber groups 16 obtained by this cutting are arranged, for example, like the three optical fiber groups 16 in FIG. 5. This is shown in FIG. 6, in which the substrates 17 are alternately laid out in two layers in rows. subesa 17
exists only on the end face side of the straight part of the optical fiber group 16,
On the curved portion side, only the optical fiber group 16 is overlapped. This spacer 17 allows the optical fiber group 16 to be spread out and stacked in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the optical fiber group. FIG. 7 shows an elevational external view of the optical fiber bundle 2 made by combining the optical fiber group 16 and the spacer 17 in this manner. As a result, the curved part side of the optical fiber group 16 has the optical fibers 13 stacked closely together, and the straight part side has the optical fiber bundle 2 stacked with an enlargement ratio determined by the cutting angle and the thickness of the smoother 17. is created. This 3
The image display device 1 shown in FIG. 1 is constructed by stacking three units of optical fiber bundles 2 and adding a liquid crystal display 3 and the like to them.

As explained above, in the method of this invention, the optical fiber 1
The image on the liquid crystal display 3 is enlarged to a predetermined magnification ratio by a very simple method of winding the optical fibers 16 around a jig 10 and stacking the optical fiber group 16 cut at a predetermined cutting portion via a spacer 17. Can create optical systems.

By the way, in the manufacturing method using the jig 10 shown in FIG.
Portions other than the optical fiber group 16 shown in the figure become unnecessary parts, causing waste in the optical fibers 13. In addition, the manufacturing method is a batch method, which has the drawback of low productivity. As a method for eliminating these drawbacks, there is a method of using a jig 19 shown in the top view of FIG. 8. This jig 19 has a structure in which cylinders are scattered, and the optical fibers 13 are lined up between the cylinders, and there are curved parts forming concentric circles along the jig 19 and curved parts formed by the next jig 19. A straight section is formed in between. In this case, the cutting lines 14, 14' may all be in the vertical direction, and there is a feature that unnecessary parts of the optical fiber are not generated. Furthermore, by increasing the number of cylinders in the jig 19, the number of optical fiber groups 16 that can be manufactured at one time can be increased. Further, the angle θ of the cutting line 14 of the straight portion can be adjusted by changing the mutual offset of the centers 20 of the cylinders.

Note that until now, the optical fiber group 16 has been separated by the cutting line 14.
Although it has been explained that the optical fiber bundle 2 is created by laminating them after forming the optical fiber bundle 2, in reality, the contact surface between the display surface 7 and the panel 9 is not an ideal end surface, so the end surface is processed at the end. is necessary.

Further, in the curved cotton forming section 11 of the jig 10, etc., it is sufficient that the optical fibers 13 are arranged in concentric circles in the section to be cut, and the optical fibers 13 in other sections do not necessarily need to form concentric circles.

[Specific Example 1] An optical fiber group 16 was produced by the manufacturing method having the configuration shown in FIG. As the optical fiber 13, a plastic fiber with a diameter of 500 LLm and an optical attenuation of 0.2 dB/m was used. The winding jig is a semicircle with a radius of 55mm and a 34mm
A columnar aluminum block consisting of a straight section with a length of 0 mm was mounted on a flat plate. In this, the optical fiber 13
were sequentially wound until the optical fiber 13 along the semicircle was 157 mm from the center, resulting in the state shown in FIG. After temporarily fixing this with an adhesive, the optical fiber group 16 was produced by cutting along the cutting line 14.14' in FIG. 4 and setting θ=38.6° so that the magnification was 1.6 times. A group of optical fibers 16 and a thickness of 300 mm were produced by repeating this process.
The optical fiber bundle 2 shown in FIG. 7 was prepared using um black paper as the spacer 17, and the whole was integrated with an adhesive. Finally, both end faces were smoothed and completed.

[Specific Example 2] The optical fiber 13 used in Specific Example 1 was 2d B
A low-cost plastic fiber with an optical attenuation of /m was used, and the other conditions were the same. As a result, the brightness of the optical fiber bundle 2 was reduced by about 5%, but the difference from Specific Example 1 was not noticeable by visual inspection.

[Specific Example 3] An image display device 1 having the configuration shown in FIG. 1 was manufactured. As the optical fiber bundle 2, the one produced according to Specific Example 1 was used.

LCD display 3 is a 5-inch LCD color TV 9
It was arranged as shown in the diagram. As the light source 5, the length is 119c.
Six 40W fluorescent lamps were used, and two of them were arranged regularly on each liquid crystal display 3.

Nine units, each consisting of an optical fiber bundle 2 and a liquid crystal display 3, were combined to form the configuration shown in FIG. The thickness of the optical fiber bundle 2 at this time was 113 mm, and the total thickness including the liquid crystal display 3, the diffuser plate 4, the fluorescent lamp as the light source 5, and the reflector plate 6 was 30 mm.

When each screen obtained by dividing an NTSC television screen into nine parts was input to the liquid crystal display 3 corresponding to each position and displayed on each liquid crystal display 3 of this device, by adjusting the color balance of each liquid crystal display 3, An image with no visible seams was obtained.

[Specific example 4] An optical fiber group 16 was produced using the jig 19 shown in FIG.

The jig 19 used had a radius of 55 mm and had six cylinders. Using the same optical fibers 13 as in Example 1, an optical fiber group 16 with a width of 102 mm and an enlargement factor of 1.6 was fabricated. At this time, in this method, unnecessary portions corresponding to unused optical fibers other than the optical fiber group 16 shown in FIG. 4 are not generated except at the first and last cut portions,
Moreover, 12 optical fiber groups 16 could be produced at one time.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the image display device of the present invention is an optical fiber group in which optical fibers are arranged in a sheet shape, and the end portion has at least a concentrically arranged portion and the optical fibers are arranged in a straight line. In the part where the end face is arranged in a concentric circle, the end face is the direction of the concentric circle, and in the part where the end face is arranged in a straight line, it is in the direction that crosses the running direction of the optical fiber at the required angle. Equipped with an optical fiber bundle made by stacking optical fiber groups, it is possible to form a screen with no visible seams even though many liquid crystal displays are combined to form one screen, and even if the screen is made large. There is an advantage that a relatively thin structure with a thickness of about 30 cm can be maintained. In addition, when enlarging the display surface of the liquid crystal display used, if you limit it to about twice the size, you can shorten the length of the optical fiber used, so even if you use a low-cost optical fiber with high light attenuation. In addition to reducing the impact, it also reduces the amount of optical fiber used.
This has a significant economical effect and also has the advantage that the weight of the optical fiber bundle is reduced, making it possible to reduce the weight of the entire device.

Further, in the method for manufacturing an optical fiber group of the present invention, a line is formed on a jig having a curved part having at least two cylinders or a part thereof, and a straight line part that connects the two curved parts in a straight line. We created a sheet-like optical fiber group in which concentrically arranged parts and linearly arranged parts were stacked by stacking optical fibers in the form of a sheet. It has the advantage of being technically very easy to manufacture, since it can be manufactured by cutting at an angle of 100 degrees and laminating the smoother and the optical fiber group. Furthermore, the jig shown in FIG. 8 has the advantage of being able to manufacture a large number of optical fiber groups at once and reducing unnecessary portions of the optical fibers.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the image display device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an elevational view and a partial sectional view of the optical fiber bundle and liquid crystal display shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a top view showing a jig and optical fibers for manufacturing a fiber group. FIG. 4 is a top view showing cutting positions for manufacturing an optical fiber group. FIG. FIG. 6 is an elevational view showing a laminated state of an optical fiber group, FIG. 7 is an elevational view showing an example of an optical fiber bundle, and FIG. 8 is an elevational view showing another embodiment of manufacturing an optical fiber group according to the present invention. It is a top view showing a tool and an optical fiber. In the figure, 1 is an image display device, 2 is an optical fiber east, 3 is a liquid crystal display, 4 is a diffusion plate, 5 is a light source, 6 is a reflector, 7
is a display screen, 8 is a peripheral circuit, 9 is a panel, 10 is a jig, 1
1 is a curve forming part, 12 is a straight line forming part, 13 is an optical fiber, 14 and 14' are cutting lines, 15 and 20 are centers, 16 is a group of optical fibers, 17 is a smoother, and 19 is a jig. Fig. 1 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 70 14.14' uJ11ra 15 Nakajiri・]6 Kabuto fiber pancreas Fig. 5 Fig. 6

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) An optical fiber group in which optical fibers are arranged in a sheet form, which has an end portion having at least a concentrically arranged portion and an end portion having a linearly arranged portion, the end face of which has the concentrically arranged portion. In the part arranged in a straight line, the direction is normal to the concentric circles, and in the part arranged in a straight line, the direction crosses the running direction of the optical fibers at a required angle. An image display device characterized in that an image enlarging optical system is formed from the ratio of the area of the end of the concentrically arranged portion of the bundle to the area of the end of the linearly arranged portion. (2) Linear optical fibers are stacked on a jig having a curved part having at least two cylinders or parts thereof, and a straight lined part that linearly connects the two curved parts to form concentric circles. 2. The method of manufacturing an optical fiber group for use in an image display device according to claim 1, wherein a sheet-like optical fiber group is created in which a portion arranged in a straight line and a portion arranged in a straight line are continuous.